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Late Quaternary Arthropod Remains from Sonoran Desert Packrat Middens, Southwestern Arizona and Northwestern Sonora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. Eugene Hall ,
Thomas R. Van Devender  and
Carl A. Olson
W. Eugene Hall
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
Thomas R. Van Devender
Affiliation:
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 North Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85743 USA
Carl A. Olson
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
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Abstract

A total of 50 arthropod taxa were identified from 41 fossil packrat (Neotoma sp.) middens from 160 to 625 m elevation in three study areas in the Lower Colorado River Valley subdivision of the Sonoran Desert. Radiocarbon dates associated with the middens range from >43,200 to 610 yr B.P. The fauna in the Tinajas Altas Mountains, southwestern Arizona, was relatively modern by ca. 10,000 yr B.P. in the early Holocene although a California juniper woodland persisted in the area until 8970 yr B.P. In contrast the fauna of the Hornaday Mountains, northwestern Sonora, increased dramatically in species richness after 4000 yr B.P. Although we are limited by poor taxonomic resolution and by insufficient knowledge of current distributions, the arthropod fauna may have been much more conservative than the regional flora during the last glacial/interglacial climatic cycle. Decreasing differences between modern and glacial climates (both temperature and precipitation) at lower latitudes and elevations may have resulted in minimal changes in the arthropod fauna of the Sonoran Desert lowlands.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , May 1988 , pp. 277 - 293
Copyright
University of Washington

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